Author: vboboe
Date: 2007-03-29 08:31
vibrato is that lovely quivery sound you hear when string players wiggle their fingers on the strings
on oboe, as a general starting guideline, vibrato's usually turned on and off deliberately (changing a 'pure' note to a quivery note) when playing long notes of at least 2 beats, usually more than that.
In practice, it's deliberately applied whenever the oboist deems it's the right musical effect just there on any particular note.
It also happens naturally when the player just plays with natural vibrato in their style, this comes from the way they 'sing' their air stream.
Everybody has some, but it takes awhile to come out on oboe, the right balance of various muscles have to be in shape first.
to build up to get good vibrato eventually, you first have to be able to hold 'pure' even, steady long tones, as your lips should be strong and steady on the reed, lips shouldn't be doing the quivering, so practice those long tones every day
and, you also need to be able to squeeze your air firmly from your abs in a steady continuous way, not blow and stop each note as beginners tend to do because their ab muscles get tired quickly
put your hands around your middle on that tickly spot on your ribs and laugh, start now ha ha ha ha, ho ho ho ho, hah hah hah hah stop now
(that's deliberate)
the muscles that jump while you're laughing are the muscles that do vibrato -- so, think Ha-ha for as long as you want the vibrato effect
Experiment faster Ha-ha on high notes and slower Ha-ha on low notes, and something in between for middle notes
When you Ha-ha a note from your laughing muscles, the distance between the higher sound and lower sound in the pulsing (the Wow) can be adjusted tighter or more open by also pulsing the air behind the reed with your throat and squeezing the air with your cheeks -- but first, you need a stable embouchure able to hold long steady tones on a responsive reed that plays readily in tune
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